Periodic Test Transmission Question

[ol'deenski]

Hey,
Firstly I apologize if this is mentioned elsewhere, I have conducted what I believe to be a pretty extensive search for an answer to the following question.

Will the Envisalink 3 send me a notification if it does not receive the periodic test transmission that I have programmed into my alarm system? If not is there a way to set up a custom alert for a missed timer test?

Thank you for your help, and again I apologize if this is covered elsewhere.

And may I say that I absolutely love this little gadget and am extremely impressed with it's capabilities. Keep it up and you guys are going to revolutionize the entire industry!

[GrandWizard]

Periodic test transmissions are redundant with Envisalerts as the whole service is completely supervised.

If your module is out of communication with our servers for more than 10 minutes you will receive a supervisory fault message either by SMS or email.

[ol'deenski]

I understand the redundancy, and in the security industry redundancy is key. However, lets say for redundancy sake I want to program a test transmission interval once a minute, because ten minutes is quite the gap in service when it comes to someone breaking into a home. I understand that when hooked to a central station they will receive these signals, and call out on the event of a missed test transmission. But what I would really like to do is set up an alert for any clients of mine that don't want to hook their alarm systems up to a central station to avoid a monthly bill.

I completely understand if this is not possible, but would like to suggest it as an added feature. I understand that if you are worried that much about a ten minute gap in your service, you should probably pay the cost to have your system monitored by a central station (and pay the extra cost to send the heartbeat signals). I was just wondering if it was possible to send out an alert based on this condition.

[GrandWizard]

I don't think you understand.

The Envisalink is fully supervised. That means it is in constant communication with the central reporting servers. If commuinciation is lost you will get an "Network Supervision Fault" alert to your email or SMS contact.

Security panels can only offer daily Periodic Test transmissions. You can't have more than one per day. That is a far cry from what we offer.

[ol'deenski]

I am really sorry the image is so large. I can take it down as soon as you view it if you like. Thanks GrandWizard!!!

Also I have set my test transmission interval back to one a day because I do not personally need this feature, and I don't want to jam up your servers with signals that serve no purpose. Not saying they couldn't handle it, that is a subject that you would be correct in assuming that I would not know what I was talking about.

[mikep]

Not sure if you meant to include me in the discussion, but since it was my "cut the internet connection and kick in the door" message you replied too, here I am .

I've got an android app on Google play, the DscServer (paid), that paired with the free DscKeypad gives you direct remote access and exactly this capability. You install the app on an old android phone, hook yourself up with a cheap pay-as-you go service (T-mobile is $10 for 3 months), and it'll SMS and/or email you if anything untoward happens to your DSC panel, envisalink, or phone - loss of power, loss of internet connection, loss of wifi, etc. You can automate things like cutting back the thermostat if you set the away alarm, turn on lights if someone enters a zone, turn on your cameras and flash your outside lights if the alarm goes off (tell the responders to look for the house with the flashing lights!), etc, and if you pair it with automation apps like Automagic or Casaverde you can do even more.

Of course if you're guarding the Mona Lisa they could jam the phone signals too but like the saying goes, for regular use you don't have to be the fastest than the bear - just faster than your neighbours...

Mike

[ol'deenski]

Thanks Mike,
I will certainly check that out. I love testing out new services!!! I would like to see it implemented on the Envisalink though.

[GrandWizard]

I am really sorry the image is so large. I can take it down as soon as you view it if you like. Thanks GrandWizard!!!

Also I have set my test transmission interval back to one a day because I do not personally need this feature, and I don't want to jam up your servers with signals that serve no purpose. Not saying they couldn't handle it, that is a subject that you would be correct in assuming that I would not know what I was talking about.

I stand corrected. On the newer DSC panel you have an option to change Days to Minutes which would allow you to send a Periodic Test Transmission every minute if you so choose.

[ol'deenski]

I stand corrected. On the newer DSC panel you have an option to change Days to Minutes which would allow you to send a Periodic Test Transmission every minute if you so choose.

Hey, no worries, I am thrilled that you are willing to learn, out of the many alarm installers I know, none are so willing to admit that they didn't know something, and learn from their own mistakes. Too commonly in this industry do I hear people blaming the shortcomings of equipment. I have done it myself when I don't know the answer to something, but willingness to learn and improve on oneself is what sets a good technician apart from a great one. Not one of us could possibly know everything about each panel type and all of the inner workings of blahblahblah. Even though I know we all try.

So again, is it possible to set either the time that the network has to be down to send a notification message, or set up a custom alert for a missed test transmission?

[GrandWizard]

Some backgroud.

The industry default for IP supervision is 4 minutes. That can be changed within the receiver, but in my experience people just leave it at the default. That being said, hardly anyone uses it except for commercial installations. Why? Because its a huge pain in the butt responding to the endless nightly superisory faults because that is typcially when ISPs do their maintenance.

Eyezon initially set the supervisiory window to 5 minutes but we too had to deal with all the false alarms that this caused. We moved it to 10 minutes and 90% of the issues disappeared. We also gave our customers the option to turn network supervision off, which a lot do.

We have talked about allowing our Envisalert+ customers to have the option of changing this window and that problaby will happen. If so the minimum window would be 2 minutes as supervision packets are sent via UDP transport which means a router has the option to drop it if they so choose.